True Tales of Tudor York is a new book is about the history of York during the reign of the Tudors, the people who lived there and those who shaped their lives. The whole Tudor dynasty is covered from just before the coronation of Henry VII in 1485 to slightly after the death of Elizabeth I in 1603.
This is the first of a series of articles covering topics linked to the book. As the book’s profits are being donated to St Leonard’s Hospice, where better to start than an article about the history and fate of the original St Leonard’s in Tudor York?
The establishment which later became known as St Leonard’s Hospital is one of very few religious houses in York to pre-date the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It is believed to have originally been called the Hospital of St Peter and was created as an integral part of the original church on the site of York Minster. There are reports King Athelstan visited the hospital in 936 and was so impressed by the care administered to the sick and poor, he initiated a local tax to pay for the hospital’s upkeep.
During the Middle Ages, King Stephen issued orders for a new church to be built in York dedicated to St Leonard. Eventually this church took over healthcare from the original hospital and evolved into St Leonard’s Hospital. The clerical staff included Augustinian brothers and sisters. While the brothers focused on patients’ spiritual needs, the sisters and lay brothers provided healthcare.
By the time of the Tudors, St Leonard’s played a very important role in York. Within the hospital grounds, care was provided for the sick, elderly and dying. The hospital also acted as a retirement home for selected people. Lastly, alms were given to beggars outside the hospital gates.
Traditionally, St Leonard’s cared for two types of resident. The first were known as corrodians. A corrody was an agreement whereby a religious house or hospital provided shelter and care for a person for the remainder of their life. This generally followed a payment made in cash, land or property which was made to the hospital, for example by a wealthy family.
The other patients were sometimes known as cremetts. These were infirm, poor or elderly people who lacked the ability to pay for their needs.
The numbers of patients and retirees at St Leonard’s fluctuated. At times, over two hundred people were cared for within the hospital’s walls. This made St Leonard’s one of the largest and most important hospitals in England.
During the reign of Henry VIII, this was about to change. In the mid-1530’s, as part of the Reformation of the Church in England, commissioners led by Thomas Cromwell inspected every religious house in the country. The commissioners in York included one of the city’s aldermen, Sir George Lawson. Along with his colleagues, Alderman Lawson made a detailed record of the income and assets of each of the religious houses in York.
In the following years, York’s major religious houses and institutions (with the exception of York Minster and the parish churches) were closed. This took a few years, as during this process there was a popular uprising called the Pilgrimage of Grace. York’s role in the Pilgrimage is covered in detail in True Tales of Tudor York.
When the rebellion’s leaders were tricked, arrested and later executed, the closure of the religious houses accelerated. York’s four friaries, two priories and St Clement’s which served as both a priory and a nunnery closed. The penultimate religious house to be shut down in the city was St Mary’s Abbey.
In December 1539, St Leonard’s Hospital was the last major religious house in York to surrender to the crown. The wards and rooms were all closed. No matter how ill or old the residents were, they were turfed out of their beds. The brothers and sisters and lay staff who’d cared for them were instructed to leave, losing their livelihoods and homes. St Leonard’s assets were sold off and the proceeds passed to the crown.
The Dissolution of the religious houses was an economic and social disaster for York. Wealth, income and employment flooded away from the city. Alms for the poor, schooling and healthcare were devastated. Following the closure of St Leonard’s, there would not be another major hospital in York until York County Hospital was opened in 1740.
Thankfully, it’s not all been doom and gloom since then, particularly following the opening of the new St Leonard’s Hospice in York. In 1978, four Royal College of Nursing members had an idea to create a hospice in York. Six years later in 1984, day care services began and in 1985 the first in-patient was admitted. Since then, St Leonard’s Hospice has expanded rapidly into the fantastic institution it is today.
You can read much more about the original St Leonard’s Hospital in the new book True Tales of Tudor York by Tony Morgan, along with royal visits to York, rebellions, religious unrest, plagues, earthquakes, flooding, the treatment of the poor and ordinary life.
The profits from Tony’s books and history talks are donated to St Leonard’s Hospice, raising thousands of pounds for this great cause.
Tony Morgan 